


From the Vasty Deep

by Isis



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Tentacles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-05
Updated: 2012-02-05
Packaged: 2017-10-30 16:13:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/333613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Isis/pseuds/Isis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time she felt his touch was on a run to Antigua, under full sail in light trades over the bluewater deeps.</p>
            </blockquote>





	From the Vasty Deep

The first time she felt his touch was on a run to Antigua, under full sail in light trades over the bluewater deeps. Just a soft caress, a whisper to her bones, but it was like nothing else she'd felt before, and she shivered in surprise and delight.

_Oh!_

**O my sweet, o my dear darling.** Another brief, delicate touch.

_What? Who?_

But he was gone, and although she searched blindly with every sense until Antigua was on the horizon and she had to turn her attention to the reefs and sandbars, she did not find him again, not for a very long time.

Wind and water were with her always, of course. The darting fishes came close but rarely touched her; the dolphins never did, but only frolicked before and behind her, teasing and laughing. She admired their sleek forms and the way they glided so gracefully in the waves. But they were untouchable, unknowable, not for her. 

The worst was when she was in a harbour, for they were invariably dirty and filled with disgusting things. Barnacles grabbed her and would not let go; crabs scuttled across her planks, prying into her crevices, and she was helpless to shake them off. 

She hardly noticed the men, for they were always present, running across the deck or sleeping below. Sometimes they annoyed her, and sometimes they pleased her, but the only one who mattered was Captain, whom she loved and hated in equal measure. 

By the second time he came to her, she had almost given up on finding him again. She had called and called, had searched around every island and behind every reef, had begged the silvery pelagics to carry her message, but none knew him nor had any word of where he might be. 

And then one night, with the moon shining full on the foamy crests of the waves, he came unbidden, unexpected, as she strained and heaved across the sea.

_I know you!_ She turned delightedly toward him and he reached out to embrace her.

**O yes**. **You are as beautiful as I remember you**.

_And you as strong and gentle as I remember you._

"Sheet in, damn you, sheet in!" called Captain. "She's pointing too high! Hold onto the wheel!"

"There's a rock – oh Holy Mother of God it's a sea monster, save me, oh God save me –"

The grip on the wheel vanished and gleefully she let it spin, let her rudder slide and bring her closer to her love. _Have you come for me at last? Are we to be together now?_

**Not yet, my sweet. Not yet.**

"Hold onto the goddamned wheel, you son of a bitch!"

_Please_ , she begged.

**Soon.** He held her close for a moment and then released her, one last touch full of regret and promise before he uncoiled and descended into the depths. 

_No! Come back!_ She shook with despair, tried to fling herself after him, but Captain himself took the wheel, and the men returned to pull on the sheets they had let fly. Her rudder was straightened, her sails put to order, and so she rode on, alone and miserable, through the night.

Soon, he had told her, and she reminded herself of this through the long days and nights that followed. The ocean seemed empty. She could not interest herself in the dolphins. Seabirds landed on her spars and rails and she did not bother shaking them off.

There were days and nights at sea, and days and nights in harbours. He was in none of them. Captain careened her on a beach and the men removed the last traces of her lover's touch. She wanted to sob, to shout, to plead with them to leave her marked as he had marked her, but she was out of the water and on her side, and she had no voice they could understand. 

When she was again afloat, though, she let them know how angry this had made her. In light winds she would not move; in heavy air she wrenched the wheel hard and came viciously into the wind. In calm seas she wallowed from side to side, and in rough seas she bucked and dove into the foam. Winches stuck and lines fouled. The men began to grumble that she was a cursed ship. It did not concern her.

He would come to her. Soon, he had promised, and so she did not try to find him. She knew he would come.

She was running before a full gale under a scrap of mainsail and a handkerchief of headsail when she sensed him, distant but coming toward her, across the ocean, up from the fathomless deep. _Oh yes!_ she cried, although she knew he could not hear her yet. _I am here, I am coming!_

On deck the men swarmed like crabs. Captain frowned and ordered the men to bring down the headsail, but she spread the remaining sail wide and plunged forward with all her speed.

_I am here!_

The waves frothed and lashed her sides with foam. A whirlpool began to form as he rose to meet her.

**Dearest darling, my sweet one, my love.** **Will you come with me?**

_Yes, oh, yes!_ She shuddered in rapture as he caressed her sides, long, sure strokes that left tingles in their wake, that left her desperate for more. She rolled towards him and shyly pressed her bowsprit against a tentacle.

**O glorious, o delight!**

He grasped her waist firmly and she wriggled against him. She felt his pleasure, and she did it again as he held her close. The men yanked on lines and climbed up on the spars. She shook some of them into the water, and he plucked off the rest. A mast cracked and fell. Captain would not leave her deck until she dipped below the waves, and even then he clung to her like a barnacle. Finally his grip loosened and he floated away. She was free.

_Take me now_ , she implored him.

**O my love.**

He wrapped her more tightly in his tentacles and began to descend. The portside rail bent and broke; she felt it as dimly as she heard the cries of the men in the water. He was all around her, and she was filled with him, gloriously filled and surrounded and held and touched and loved, as slowly they sank together, down, ever down, down to her joyous doom, down to the bottom of the sea.


End file.
